Each year, hundreds of millions of telephone books are reprinted for distribution to households and businesses around the world. The telephone books are updated yearly, even though the dynamic portion of the telephone book (that portion which actually changes) is extremely small. Consequently, an enormous amount of energy and natural resources are consumed in order to revise a relatively small amount of information.
Several computer programs now provide autodialing features, which allow the user to generate a list of his or her most frequently called numbers. A selected number may be dialed by pressing a button. Autodial features are also found on many phones, wherein each button corresponds to a frequently dialed number.
Autodialing features, while reducing the frequency with which the telephone book is used, does not relieve the necessity for updated information. Hence, autodialing phones and computer programs do not diminish the need for updated telephone books on a yearly basis.
Another problem with telephone books is the arrangement of advertisements in the yellow pages. To conserve money, a business operation will normally advertise in only one section. Therefore, a store which sells appliances, video, audio and photographic products will normally advertise in only section, or will place a advertisement in one section and have a plain listing in the other sections. Consequently, a potential customer searching for a particular good or service may not get a full listing of providers from the yellow pages.
Therefore, a need has arisen for a replacement to the traditional telephone book which reduces the waste involved in yearly updates to the telephone book and which provides more advanced searching capabilities.